This system is excellent for teaching the young pianist how to play pieces written for the harpsichord or the first pianofortes where the keys responded to slight pressure; but it is inadequate for modern works and instruments.

It is the way one ought to begin, for it develops firmness of the fingers and suppleness of the wrist, and, by easy stages, adds the weight of the forearm and of the whole arm.

But in our day it has become the practice to begin at the end.

We learn the elements of the fugue from Sebastian Bach's _Wohltemperirte Klavier_, the piano from the works of Schumann and Liszt, and harmony and instrumentation from Richard Wagner.

All too often we waste our efforts, just as singers who learn roles and rush on the stage before they know how to sing ruin their voices in a short time.
Firmness of the fingers is not the only thing that one learns from Kalkbrenner's method, for there is also a refinement of the quality of the sound made by the fingers alone, a valuable resource which is unusual in our day.
Unfortunately, this school invented as well continuous _legato_, which is both false and monotonous; the abuse of nuances, and a mania for continual _expressio_ used with no discrimination.